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Absence of Leaf/Green

I'm not sure who else remembers this enough to care, but apparently there was a female protagonist planned for Gen I although(correct me if I'm wrong), due to limitations at the time, she was left out.

I hardly ever play as the female protagonist unless I decide to get both games in a set at the time/fool around with having both but I can't help but think over the fact that, as badass as Red is(and will be to anyone who started with the first gen!), you ladies out there don't really have a proper heroine to reflect on from way back then.

Any opinions on this? Would you have liked an equally 'badass' female counterpart of Red if it meant making some little sacrifices or was possible at all?

I know we do have Leaf now for that gen but she was not in the original Gen I games so can we really say that she is as big as Red? It's not like she has her own spot as an elite trainer in Johto/Gen II either.

Though it was a long time ago, I don't remember any in-game text referring to gender. Notice that the your character's hat cover's it's face, and that you can add a female symbol to the end of your name? If you want, the main character can be female.

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I'm not talking about any ingame reference. There's old artwork on the strategy guide for Red/Green that suggests they could have had one planned(she was next to squirtle while Red and Blue were next to Bulbasaur and Charmander, respectively). I don't think it was by Sugimori though, but we did end up getting one in the remakes that has a similar appearance to that original girl.

Red is definitely male. I always play as a girl when I play FR/LG, and when you're in Erika's gym as a girl, no one really bothers you. In R/B/Y, however, you get told to leave by one trainer, and another calls you a peeping Tom! So, yeah, it's definitely different playing as a boy.

It would've been really neat to have that option from the beginning to be a female (though I don't know if this would've worked for Pokémon Yellow since it's pretty much the anime in game form). That would've probably made G/S/C that much more memorable at Mount Silver. Like if you chose to be the girl in the game, you got to fight the female counterpart from the first games (or it would be randomly generated, since most people tended to start over their games anyway). That would've been freakin' awesome.

But all we have is concept art, and the inclusion of Green in the manga, which I guess further proves she was supposed to be a playable character. It's sad that the first games had limitations, but hey, technology marches on. I'm happy that from Crystal on-ward, we can have that option to be male or female. And so LeafGreen was really neat for me. I got nostalgic going back through Kanto, but I was now a girl, and it became a little more personal for me, like how RPGs tend to be.

Red is definitely male. I always play as a girl when I play FR/LG, and when you're in Erika's gym as a girl, no one really bothers you. In R/B/Y, however, you get told to leave by one trainer, and another calls you a peeping Tom! So, yeah, it's definitely different playing as a boy.

I don't think I really paid attention to that. I wonder how the 'peeping' old man who sits outside of the gym would've reacted to the female protagonist, haha. XD

Very nice picture. I do think the games should have had a proper female protagonist. At the same time, I wonder if the game's artist didn't try to draw the protagonist as a generic, non-gender specific kid. If so, it didn't work.

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I think they probably programmed a single player Character which ends up being Red. Adding Playing as a girl in the early 90 was rarely done in the games of the times, not unless where where Statical reason such as +5 Evade -5 Strength, and in those games chances are you'll have a possible "Monster character" with -10 Speed +5 Strength +5 Def.

Most of the game I can think of which was released before 96 that did have playable female characters, they're generally tie ins to a Tv/Movie, or just a token female in some cases. Pokémon came out as the SNES/MegaDrive Era ending and the Playstation1/N64 Era just started.

Also remember the GB graphics are quite limited the over world image is only 16 x 16 pixels. (The Dex Graphics we use are 32x32)

Oh.. I saw this thread thinking it was for 3rd Gen section based on the title.

Lack of time, money, and skill. Many good ideas are cut from games for these reasons.

Lack of space is also possibly the biggest reason why lots of things were cut out from the original until the second generation came out. The Game Boy cartridge could only hold so much, especially with how tight everything was in Game Freak at the time--Pokémon saved the company, after all.

Originally Posted by Nutter t.KK

Most of the game I can think of which was released before 96 that did have playable female characters, they're generally tie ins to a Tv/Movie, or just a token female in some cases. Pokémon came out as the SNES/MegaDrive Era ending and the Playstation1/N64 Era just started.

Samus Aran is probably the most well-known/popular video game female heroine out there (she may have been the first if I remember correctly), though since you mentioned tie-ins to movies, it's possible Metroid may have taken cues from Aliens. *shrugs* But still, I think she counts as a female character who stood out on her own given the time-period.

yes their was a planned female portagonist but I think they left it out for 2 major reasons: 1, they couldn't fit her in and 2, they proballyt weren't sure how popular the game was gonna be with the girls because back then, video games we're mostly a guy thing

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Lack of space is also possibly the biggest reason why lots of things were cut out from the original until the second generation came out. The Game Boy cartridge could only hold so much, especially with how tight everything was in Game Freak at the time--Pokémon saved the company, after all.

Samus Aran is probably the most well-known/popular video game female heroine out there (she may have been the first if I remember correctly), though since you mentioned tie-ins to movies, it's possible Metroid may have taken cues from Aliens. *shrugs* But still, I think she counts as a female character who stood out on her own given the time-period.

I assumed lack of money would limit the cartirige size. Perhaps that was a poor assumption.

What about Ms. Pac-Man?

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She's pretty much Pac-Man if he went through a sex change. I wouldn't say she counts, she was pretty much there for eye-candy, albeit odd eye-candy.

Freakin' LOL'd.

Originally Posted by Liz Azzimagica

yes their was a planned female portagonist but I think they left it out for 2 major reasons: 1, they couldn't fit her in and 2, they proballyt weren't sure how popular the game was gonna be with the girls because back then, video games we're mostly a guy thing

What would the second part have to do with anything, haha? If she wasn't used as often as Red, so be it; She'd be there for the female players as an option at least.

I just think it sucks that, as generations come out, we can all look back on Red as the beginning/badass protagonist that he was, while female players don't really have their own to reflect back on because of Leaf/Green's absence(sure you can look back on her from the perspective of how FrLg turned that around, but the original games will always hold a place in our hearts. I can understand memory issues but surely they could have cut something not as important out to make way for her.

Originally Posted by pacman000

That makes some since. I can think of a couple more games, Ghost Manor and Halloween for the Atari 2600, but those are probably too obscure to matter.

That game is all sorts of creepy, especially the flickering lights in some rooms to go along with the music.

especially with how tight everything was in Game Freak at the time--Pokémon saved the company, after all.

This. It's fascinating to think about how many times the creator was turned down by game companies to make Pocket Monsters, and now it's one of the best selling franchises of all time, third according to Wikipedia. With 219.28 million games sold. It's like... imagine what you can miss as a publisher.